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Arianna Bellizzi is the new Executive Director of Anchorage’s Federation of Community Councils. We talk about her background, how she came to this job, and the history of Anchorage’s community council system. We also discuss the current state of community councils in our city and potential ways for improving them.

Find your community council by clicking here.

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Soldotna City Council member Lisa Parker became at the age of 19 the youngest person in Alaska to achieve elected office when she won her election to the Anchorage Charter Commission. In 1975 that commission unified the City of Anchorage with the Borough of Anchorage into the municipality that it is today. Like our guest last week, Jane Angvik who also served on the Charter Commission, Lisa Parker was a borough representative because where she was living at the time, near Baxter and Tudor in what is today East Anchorage, was outside the city limits. After graduating from American University with a degree in Political Science, Lisa assisted in the establishment of the the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska. Throughout her diverse varied career, she has served as the Planning Director for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, as government and community relations manager for both an international manufacturing company and a Cook Inlet oil & gas company, and last year she finished a 6 year stint on the University of Alaska Board of Regents. She is currently in her 14th year on the Soldotna City Council.

Link to Anchorage Charter Bill of Rights.  

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Anchorage Charter Commission member Jane Angvik ran for the Anchorage Charter Commission not too long after she had moved to Anchorage in 1973. What she had learned during her time working for the Greater Anchorage Borough Planning Department was that the City of Anchorage and the Borough of Anchorage hated each other – they couldn’t stop suing each other, and the State of Alaska had grown weary of the drama. The ridiculous conflict even resulted in the loss of life. This is Jane Angvik’s recollections of her time serving on the Charter Commission. 

For the rest of Jane Angvik’s life story listen to the previous episode which covers her childhood in Minnesota all the way to her administering the oath of office to Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance two weeks ago. 

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Jane Angvik was an Anchorage Charter Commission member who drafted the founding document that unified the city and borough of Anchorage in 1975. On July 1, 2024, she administered the oath of office at the inauguration of Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. Jane has spent her life in service to Alaska whether at her first job for the Anchorage borough as a planner upon her arrival in 1973, working for the Alaska Federation of Natives, serving on the Anchorage Assembly, or training the next generation of leaders through Alaska Women Ascend, the ways that she has contributed to our state and city are many and profound. This episode will discuss much of Jane’s life including her childhood in Minnesota and her meeting of her husband Vic Fischer – a founding father of Alaska who we sadly lost last year at the age of 99. 

This episode will not include Jane’s time on the charter commission. That period of her life, which so profoundly impacts what Anchorage is today,  will be its own episode released next week.

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Community activist Dr. Cal Williams was born on November 30, 1941, in Monroe, Louisiana. A college graduate, Williams served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s and participated in the Civil Rights Movement through his affiliation with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1965, following the advice of Charles and John LeViege, two high school friends who were enrolled at Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University), Williams came to Anchorage seeking a change. .

Over the next 60 years, Williams worked at Providence Alaska Medical Center as a dishwasher (aka director of pots and pans), then as a nursing assistant at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute,  and eventually landed a role in communications for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation until his retirement.

Williams served as president of the Alaska chapter of the NAACP from 1968 to 1970. During that time, he partnered with Alaska Native leadership to lobby for the landmark Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Williams was honored by the Anchorage Municipal Assembly for his contributions to the growth and strength to the State of Alaska. In 2017, Williams was the recipient of the St. Francis of Assisi Award. Williams has served as Grand Knight of the Council of Knights of Columbus at St. Patrick's Church in Anchorage, as well as in 2018, he served as the District 22 chair for the Alaska Democratic Party.

More recently, Williams collaborated with UAA associate professor of history Ian Hartman, Ph.D., and David Reamer in the writing of Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest. Together, they have done presentations, book signings, museum exhibitions and archive curations. For his invaluable contributions, UAA awarded Williams an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in fall 2022.

The 400 years of African American History Commission, a federally appointed committee established in 2019 with the goal of rediscovering the 400 years of history since Africans were first brought to English colonies in 1619, recognized Cal Williams during Juneteenth 2024 as one of America’s 400 African American History Keepers. 

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 Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa was born and raised in the islands of Samoa in the the South Pacific.  She moved to Anchorage 20 years ago to join the rest of her family who were already here. Ms. Toleafoa serves as Executive Director at the Pacific Community of Alaska. She serves as co-chair for the board of directors for the National Association of Pasifika Organizations (NAOPO)  and member of the board of directors for the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA); she also serves as an officer for United Territories of Pacific Islands Alliance Alaska ( UTOPIA ), an organization focused on supporting Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders. Her professional background encompasses a diverse range of expertise, including housing interventions for the houseless population, advocacy for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, & human trafficking, and working with folks suffering from  substance abuse and behavioral and mental health challenges. 

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University of Alaska Anchorage Economics Professor Kevin Berry returns to the podcast to discuss the Alaska economy. For a deeper dive into his personal story, listen to his episode from November 2022 (click here). Today we talk about the way the private sector and the public sector economies interact with each other in typical states and how Alaska is different; the need for zoning change in Anchorage; and ways that Anchorage's current community councils might be improved.

To read Dan Robinson's article, "Government and Private Sector Jobs," in Alaska Economic Trends, June 2024, click here.

To read " SHORT-RUN ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF ALASKA FISCAL OPTIONS ," by  Gunnar Knapp, Matthew Berman, and Mouhcine Guettabi from the Institute of Social and Economic Research, click here.

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In honor of Juneteenth 2024, I am airing an interview I conducted with Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson from 2023 for my previous podcast, "East Anchorage Matters." Last month the Alaska State House and Senate passed Sen. Gray-Jackson's bill making Juneteenth an Alaska State Holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States and began in Galveston, Texas, where the freed slaves there didn’t learn of their freedom until June 19, 1865, over two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation officially freeing them. Juneteenth has been the longest running African American Holiday, but for many years it was predominantly celebrated in the South, and many folks didn’t know about it. Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson herself arrived in Anchorage from New Jersey on June 19, 1982, with little knowledge of that holiday, but now 42 years later, we celebrate Elvi Gray-Jackson's achievement having made Juneteenth an official Alaska State Holiday. 

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intérprete: Israel Portilla Gomez

La información de este episodio se basa en una entrevista que realizó en 2024 con Jeremy Applegate, jefe de la división de Salarios y Horas del Departamento de Trabajo del Estado de Alaska. Todos los trabajadores en Alaska tienen derecho a un salario y un trato justos según la ley. Muchos trabajadores desconocen sus derechos, lo que permite al empleador aprovecharlos. El propósito de este podcast es educar a los trabajadores de Alaska sobre sus derechos para asegurarse de que se les pague y se les trate de manera justa.

Si cree que se han violado sus derechos como trabajador, puede enviar un correo electrónico a la División de Salarios y Horas a [email protected], o puede llamar a la oficina al (907) 269-4900 de martes a jueves entre las 8:30 y 16:30 h.
Incluso si no está seguro, no dude en llamar a la oficina para obtener ayuda.
Puede llamar con seguridad incluso si está trabajando sin visa. El Departamento de Trabajo tiene la tarea de ayudar a que todos los trabajadores reciban un salario justo. No será reportado a inmigración por comunicarse con el Departamento de Trabajo para denunciar prácticas laborales injustas.
Es muy importante entender esto: todos los trabajadores en Alaska, independientemente de su estatus, tienen derecho a un salario y condiciones de trabajo justos.

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Перекладач: Катерина Клименченко
Інформація в цьому епізоді базується на інтерв’ю, яке він провів у 2024 році з Джеремі Епплгейтом, керівником відділу оплати праці та робочих годин Департаменту праці штату Аляска. Відповідно до закону, усі працівники на Алясці мають право на справедливу оплату праці та ставлення. Багато працівників не знають своїх прав, і це дає змогу роботодавцю нажитися на ниx. Мета цього подкасту – розповісти працівникам Аляски про їхні права, щоб переконатися, що вони отримують зарплату та чесне ставлення.

Якщо ви вважаєте, що ваші права як працівника були порушені, ви можете надіслати електронного листа до відділу оплати праці та робочих годин за адресою [email protected] або зателефонувати в офіс за номером (907) 269-4900 з вівторка по четвер з 8:30 до 4:30 вечора. Навіть якщо ви не впевнені, сміливо телефонуйте в офіс по допомогу.